This invention relates primarily to an electronic video poker machine, and more particularly to an electronic video poker machine that is programmed to provide multiple video poker formats to the player. The player may play different types of video poker formats at the same time using multiple hands with varying wagering amounts.
There have been many types of electronic video gaming machines that have been developed. The electronic video poker gaming machine is designed to replicate the play of a hand of poker. Typically, the player is not playing against any other player""s hands or against a dealer""s hand; the player is simply attempting to achieve the highest ranking poker hand possible from the cards displayed to the player. The higher the ranking of the poker hand achieved by the player, the greater the player""s winnings based on the number of coins, tokens or credits wagered by the player. Typically, a payout schedule is posted on the gaming machine to advise the player of the payoffs available for certain winning card combinations.
The forerunner of all electronic video poker gaming machines is the video Draw Poker machine that deals cards from a standard 52 card poker deck and displays a single five card hand to the player. The player then selects which of the five cards he wishes to hold (or discard depending on the format of the gaming machine). The draw poker machine then displays replacement cards for the cards the player has discarded. The player wins or loses based on conventional poker hand rankings for the resulting five card hand. In video Draw Poker, the conventional poker hand rankings that are winning combinations are a Royal Flush, a Straight Flush, a Four of a Kind, a Full House, a Flush, a Straight, a Three of a Kind, a Two Pair and a Pair of Jacks or Better. A payout table is established based on the number of coins wagered by the player and the type of poker hand achieved.
The classic draw poker machine has been modified to use Jokers as wild cards or to use Deuces (or even other cards) as wild cards. xe2x80x9cJokers Wildxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cDeuces Wildxe2x80x9d draw poker still display to the player a single five card hand and allow the player to discard unwanted cards and receive replacement cards. The payout table is modified to recognize the differing odds for achieving various poker hands when wild cards are involved. Furthermore, different poker hand rankings are used in the pay table to recognize different winning combinations that can be achieved using wild cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,140 (Dabrowski et al.) (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference) discloses a method of play of a game generally referred to as xe2x80x9cDouble Pokerxe2x80x9d. In this method of play, a player makes a wager to participate in the game and the player is dealt two distinct hands at the beginning of the game. Each hand is dealt from its own separate complete deck of cards and all five cards in each hand are dealt face up. The player selects one of the hands to play and the unselected hand is voided or removed from use. The player plays out the selected hand according to the conventional manner of play of traditional video poker games by discarding and receiving replacement cards. All replacement cards are dealt from the particular initial deck of cards from which the first five cards were dealt. The player wins or loses based on a payout schedule applied to preselected winning hand combinations and based on the number of coins wagered by the player.
The method of play disclosed in this ""140 patent has the drawback that the player only has two initial five cards hands to choose from and all five cards of each hand are displayed to the player. The player makes a single wager and can only play one of the hands. Thus, if the player were to receive good hands on the initial deal of both hands, one of the good hands would be unavailable to the player and therefore would be wasted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 (Moody) (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference) describes an electronic video gaming machine and method in which the player may play multiple hands at the same time. The player makes a wager for each separate hand to be played by the player. One hand of five cards is dealt all face up. The player selects none, one or more of the face up cards from the first hand as cards to be held. The cards that are held are duplicated from the first hand into all of the other hands. Replacement cards for the non-selected cards are dealt into the first hand and additional cards are then dealt to the first hand, if needed, so that the first hand has five cards. Additional cards are also dealt to all of the other hands so that each hand is a five card hand. The poker hand ranking of each five card hand is determined row by row. The player is then paid for any winning poker hands based on a pay table and the amount of the player""s wager.
The method of play disclosed in this ""873 patent has the drawback that the player must select a single video poker format to play at the beginning of each hand. For example, if the player selects to play Deuces Wild Poker, each hand is the Deuces Wild Poker format. Also any cards that are selected to be held in the first hand are duplicated into all of the other hands that the player has wagered to play. Thus the player cannot play his hands differently in an attempt to achieve different ending hands. For example, if the player were dealt Three Aces and two Fives (a Full House) in the first initial five cards, the player cannot hold the Full House in one hand and hold only the three Aces in any of the other hands in order to attempt to achieve Four Aces on the draw while at the same time guaranteeing a good return on the round of play since at least one Full House will be won by the player.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,915 (Kadlic) (the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference) discloses an electronic video draw poker machine and method in which a four separate five card draw poker hands are displayed at the same time. The initial deal of each five card hand is two cards face up and three cards face down. The player selects one of the sets of two face up cards to continue play. After the player has selected which set of two face up cards he wishes to play, the remaining face down cards in the selected hand are revealed. The game then continues in the conventional manner with the player discarding and drawing replacement cards with respect to the selected five card hand in an attempt to improve that hand. After the draw step is completed, the final five card hand is compared to a pay table based on poker hand ranking to determine if the player has achieved a winning combination. The amount of the payout to the player for a winning combination is based on the number of coins, tokens or credits wagered by the player and the type of winning hand achieved.
The method of play disclosed in this ""915 patent also has the drawback that the player must select a single video poker format to play at the beginning of each hand. For example, if the player selects to play Double Bonus Poker, each hand is the Double Bonus Poker format. If the player has two or more good starting hands, only one of the starting hands can be used and the other good starting hands are wasted.
Video Poker has undergone many changes and adaptations in gaming today. Those changes include offering players a selection of poker game formats (Jacks or Better Draw Poker, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker, Deuces Wild Poker, Jokers Wild Poker, etc). Players indicate their choice of the poker game format that the player wishes to play and the player then makes his wager based on upon that choice of poker game format.
One of the advantages of the latest design wave of the modern electronic video poker gaming machines is that they offer multiple choices of video poker game formats on a menu video screen. This allows a player to sit at one single machine and change video poker game formats without having to go to some other machine to play a different video poker game format. Players like this choice of multiple video poker game formats as evidenced by the prolific growth in numbers of these menu type electronic video poker gaming machines in many gaming locations over the last few years.
What is needed is a video poker gaming machine that would expand upon the present technology of these types of gaming machines and allow even more freedom of choice to players. That is what the present invention will do for players.
Presently, players are allowed to play only one video poker game format at any particular time. This limitation has been enhanced somewhat by the video poker gaming machines that offer multiple hand games so that a player has a variable choice as to the number of hands the player wishes to wager upon during any particular round of the game. Presently, a player selects his choice of video poker game format and, then, a player indicates how many of such hands he wants to wager upon.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a new form of an electronic video poker game that allows the player to play two or more video poker game formats at the same time.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide an electronic video poker machine that has a multi-hand screen display and that allows the player to select from a plurality of video poker game formats for each of the hands displayed on the screen. The player may also select to wager from one unit to the maximum number of units separately on each of the hands.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the player is given multiple options at the beginning of each round of the game to select which video poker game format the player wishes to play on each of a plurality of hands and the player is given the option to determine separately how many units the player wishes to wager on each of the multiple hands that the player has chosen to play.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description.
The present invention is a card game preferably played on an electronic video gaming machine in which a single player plays against a pay table. The player makes a wager for each of two or more hands that the player wishes to play. The player selects a poker hand format for each hand, with no two hands having the same poker hand format. After the player has made his wagers and selected the poker hand format for each hand, the computer controls deal out face up each initial five card hand of poker in each poker format selected by the player. The player selects none, one or more of the face up cards from each hand as cards to be held. The non-selected cards are discarded from each first hand and replacement cards are dealt face for each discarded card. The poker hand ranking of the resulting final five cards of each hand are then determined. The player is then paid a preestablished amount based on the amount of each wager if the resulting cards of each hand comprise a predetermined poker hand ranking.